I think I am going to lose my head!!!!...Anyone have this problem?...

[chubbydog811]

...Sorry, I am really only looking to vent...But has anyone else had this problem?....

So to start off, I have had a lice problem in one of my chicken coops. We contained it to just that coop (didnt spread)...I wanted to go natural with them, so I dusted with DE, didnt work (NOTE: use as precaution..not very useful after you are infested!)
So this week I gave them baths with dish soap, which worked AMAZINGLY well. I could actually see dead lice everywhere...It was actually quite gross, but refreshing in a way.
Anyway, So next week they will get their follow up on it...

Point of all this - I finally have one coop almost clean, to find that EVERY SINGLE stall in my horse barn (its a 10 stall barn) has lice everywhere...So I sprayed and dusted the barn. I dont think it is on the horses...Yet...

I think, "hm...check the chickens that are quarentined in the horse barn"...They have it now too...They have been turned out with about 20 of my young chicks... who have been in contact with my barn chicken...who has been in contact with EVERYTHING in the barn yard...I only have 2 coops right now that is bug free!!! (out of 4 coops, a horse stall, and a chick brooder)

I am getting SOOOO frustrated with bugs!

Has anyone had this big of a spread before? How did you get through it without ripping all your hair out, and going crazy?!

Short of dusting the crap out of everyone with Seven dust tomorrow, I'm thinking about cleaning out ALL bird nest (barn birds) in the barn. I have that odd feeling this is where my problem started, and why it isnt going away...Our barn is very open, and the birds love breeding and reproducing in it. They also love dropping dead baby birds everywhere...

Anyway, if you have any other help to offer, short of dusting with Seven, please let me know! Before I lose my head to these pesty little bugs!!!

 

[texasbartrambaby]

I hope that you can find a solution!

I am horrible - I dust my barn with sevin at least once a month. Not very friendly but I do so as my birds are free range during the day. We also have goats, pigs etc that I certainly don't want to give anything to. So far, so good. I don't actually dust my birds, but they walk through the dust on the concrete and dust bath in the dirt floor in the stalls.

I am curious to hear what others do!

 

[saddina]

Anyway, if you have any other help to offer, short of dusting with Seven, please let me know! Before I lose my head to these pesty little bugs!!!

Dust it.

 

[Drafthorsegal]

I had a draft horse that like a red-headed step child got lice every year like clockwork. What we found out (even though it didn't spread to anyone else) is that killing the big bugs didn't do much good, you had to kill the nits on the hair. I'm assuming its the same way with the chickens. The really easy way to get rid of the lice was simple. Get Betadine scrub and give your horses baths in them. Not only does it kill the adult lice, but it dries out the nits and kills them as well. We also sprayed the walls and floor of the barn.

I'd ask some members here if betadine scrub in a diluted bath form would be okay on chickens, cause I really don't know.... but that WILL GET RID OF THEM. Its really a 30 day cycle of waiting to keep them off your stuff and to kill the batches of eggs before they hatch.

I feel so bad for you. I just want to hug you. I know how this feels... its horrible.. horrible horrible. Thankfully we've never had problems since we moved here, but I know it can happen just as quick as lightening... lice are carried by everything, and the kind that are in the barn on the horses are particularly nasty. I can't imagine it'd be any easier on the chickens.

And I'd be far more inclined to use Iodine on them than Sevin unless its a last ditch effort.

 

[worldwidechick]

My family used Sevin dust for years, BUT, now I think they are on the verge of banning it. That makes me worry, so maybe someone has something else you can use. Can you search for an organic option? Surely there is something that would work out there, try the search option maybe, best of luck.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Lice are easy rid of with Tea Tree Oil shampoo if you want to stay natural, or Dog or Cat flea and tick shampoo if you want an insecticide. You don't mention how many birds you have and that matters, bathing is more work than dusting. Yes Sevin is on the way out, it's been found to be a very strong carcinogenic and has gradual neurotoxic effects. Rotenone, which is also on the way out has been linked to Parkinsons.

Both dusts are still available for the time. IMO Rotenone is the lesser of the 2 evils however it's up to you to decide for yourself.

You must treat all your birds at the same time and yes the wild barn birds are probably your source and they must go or be treated. Probably your barn rafters are infested if the baby birds are dropping dead. Lice seem to be able to harbor through a season in the nests so clean them out and use livestock spray with a residual up there treat the wood. I have now wired off the area that starlings used to nest here to prevent lice and mites.

Mice can be a source of lice too so check up on your rodent control.

Changing your bedding after treatment is a good idea, and adding some cedar to it helps as does powdered lime like dolomite which makes the pH not so bug friendly. DE is very helpful if the birds have it to dust in all the time.

Livestock barn sprays are helpful to prevent recurrence.

The lice poultry get are not the same ones that horses get so don't worry if you have horses.

 

[chubbydog811]

Thanks for all the replies! The more I think about it, the more angry I get about it!!

I dont want to use Seven, but It is my last option -
There are way too many birds to bath them all myself...

here are the coops and how many birds (to see my frustration):

-old coop - where lice started. 12 hens, all sexlinks..These are the girls I am bathing - they were just about lice free after I bathed them..Only a few eggs left.
-attached to old coop - bug free. They are whiteleghorns
-bantam coop - bug free. They are bantam cochins, and a few mixed breed larger hens. 12 bantams, and 5 standard chickens.
-stall - 6 bantams and an EE. I know 5 bantams definitely have it. Our barn bantam and EE are housed with them, so one can only assume they most likely have it too. Also have a bantam frizzle in a brooder in there (got picked on in the bantam coop), assuming she also has it, since she is in with them during the day outside.
-older chick brooder - I dust their brooder with DE and lime every day, BUT they are turned out with the stall bantams (yet again, assuming - I didnt check them, but they all look terrible. Lacking feathers, and have chewed up feathers) There are 8 ameraucanans, 5 leghorns, and a handful of mixes, and a handful of guineas.
Next I have 7 WLH's that are in a different brooder, but they are in the one that the other chicks were in. I have also been dusting them everyday with DE (as a precaution, and do dry out their boxes)

I am thinking that I will bathe the bantam coop, and dust everyone else - I dont want to ruin that many eggs from the chickens that are laying enough to sell already. The bantams are just starting to lay, so they are the tiny, penny sized eggs anyway...

Anyway, the bugs are crawling EVERYWHERE in the horse area. I pick up at least 3 dead birds a day out of the isle/stalls. My black lab helps also by capturing the stupid ones that fly into walls and then cant fly...I have been spraying the fly spray on the stalls, and then spreading DE...That got rid of them in the first stall I found bugs in, and kept them away, so I'm hoping it works on the rest...Its too late to dust the rafters, because we already have hay up in the loft. Our barn has a loft above the stalls...

Drafthorsegal , you have a good point about the betedine. Its meant for preventing infection, so logically that would mean that is is meant to dry out affected areas so it doesnt get infected...
Does anyone have any info on that? I assume it would be safe for chickens - I use it on them all the time for picking wounds, or whatever else they can get torn up by.
Would it be alright to dilute it down more? (10 stall barn, and lots of chickens could get expensive with spraying that).

Anyway, thanks again all! Any more info would be helpful! I'm planning on dusting and bathing again tomorrow...Maybe after the hay gets up tomorrow (it will fill in a lot of the open gaps that the birds are coming in through) I'll pick off a few with the pellet gun and try to close off up top even more...They are also nesting in the walls above the stalls - there are no ceilings on the stalls, just beams. I'm half assuming those are probably the ones that are really causing the problem...

Also, The lice that I'm finding everywhere, will they live off of the horses? I know that they shouldn't, but the way it is going, they would probably do it out of spite (because bugs know what that means

)

**forgot to add - Ill look to see what they have to bug dips at the feed store when I go...Though the dish soap worked well enough, that might be cheaper and easier to just do that. There just isnt enough time in one day to bath that many chickens!!!

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Yes the dips would work and be faster. However read the ingredients, you might not want to do that with your layers. Some of the livestock barn sprays can be used direct on the birds too.

Your horses should not be effected but if you can just keep them out till you get sprayed. Get a livestock barn spay mix for the barn, it will be way cheeper than using the iodine on the walls and they have stuff that will stay for 30 days so you don't have to redo it.

Knock or take the nests off all the beams above the stalls and spray there, then keep the birds from rebuilding till this is over. In the long term like me you might want to wire or net those areas so they don't do this to you again.

 

[chubbydog811]

Thanks adoptedbyachicken...We ended up getting the Rotenone dust stuff...I told my mum the Seven might not be a good idea..
I think I am just going to bath with the dish soap - then I wont need to worry about the eggs. Getting ready to do that now!

We are going to be netting off the barn. This is the first time we have ever had a problem with the barn birds carrying this many bugs. I was even more grossed out when I went up in the loft to get some buckets - the buckets were covered in lice. I'm thinking I will take up some fly spray to get the rafters, since there is already hay up there. The loft is going to be filled by tomorrow afternoon hopefully, so that should keep the birds out.

Will the lice live through the cold weather? I highly doubt I will be able to get the lice out of the barn right away. But if they will die in the cold, then I might just drudge through the rest of the season...Making sure my chickens are kept out of reach of the barn birds - I'm going to make a screen door for my new chicken coops, that have a chicken hole, and keep all food inside - that is probably the main reason the birds are so bad this year...Lots of chicken food for them! Netting off the chicken coops today with smaller netting so the birds cant get in...Hopefully the rest of my chickens will be going out to their new coop by the end of the week - I'm desperately hoping that will drastically reduce the bird problem (after we pick off a few) by having all the chicken food locked up away from the stupid little things...

Would the metal netting (like used in the bottom of an incubator) be better for netting off open spots in the horse barn? Or would 1/2" plastic netting due? We already have the plastic netting, and it is a lot cheaper...

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

The dish soap will not take care of the eggs, only the already hatched lice. Tea Tree Oil can be added to the soap or use the dog shampoo to make the eggs not hatch out. But even the soap alone is a good way to start the knockdown, then you can use the Rotenone again in 10 days to kill the new hatched adults before they are old enough to lay more eggs.

BTW that is the likely reason you did not see the DE working, it only kills the adult styages. So you have to sue it for 10 days before you 'run out' of eggs to hatch.

No matter what you do, or which combination you just have to keep it up for a while. And treat all areas even if you don't see lice, you only see them if they are in huge numbers, and it only takes 2 of them to be a breeding pair!

Yes spray anywhere you see them, and get rid of the birds and their nests. Hard things like buckets that can be just scrubbed with hot water and detergent do that, but the wood of the barn and such will need spray.

The plastic netting will work for a couple years, then need replacing due to sun and wind damage. However if they really try the birds might get through it, and for sure if they have help from rodents the wire is better. If it's what you have at hand I'd give it a try.

Forgot to mention, no they will not survive the winter if you get freeze up, they will be brought back by next year's birds.